Abstract:

Since its entry into the literary field in the late eighteenth century, the vampire has seen many permutations, ranging from the truly monstrous to the present-day seductive stranger. The creature’s mutability stems from its liminal placement, hovering as it does between life and death. In exploring the figure of the vampire within the Germanic tradition, two works separated not only by medium, but also by nearly a century of time, emerged as the focus of this thesis: Ludwig Tieck’s Romantic Kunstmärchen “Der Runenberg” and Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau’s Expressionist film Nosferatu: Eine Symphonie des Grauens. Superficially, this link appears tenuous, but in analyzing Tieck’s fairy tale and Murnau’s neo-Romantic film several thematic connections emerge. Both works contain a complex and fluid depiction of gender, a narrative of infection, and a vampire that is an embodiment and corruption of nature. Using a syntagmatic approach, this thesis explores the similarities between the two works, as well as the differences, with a focus on the element of vampiric nature and the representations of gender.